The Akwa Ibom State government, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, has appealed for a refund of hundreds of billions of naira the Federal Government owed the state through its intervention on federal roads in the state.
Speaking through the state Commissioner for Works, Mr. Akparawa Ephraim Inyang-eyen in Uyo on Monday, the governor told newsmen that the billions of naira committed to federal roads around the state during the immediate past administration have remained unremitted to the state coffers.
The commissioner, however, regretted that the situation has made the government incapable of intervening further in federal roads within the state.
He said that he had presented the position of the state government to the Joint Committee of the National Assembly and Babatunde Fashola, the Works Minister, but no refund has so far been made.
He said, “If we have the luck to have some of our verified claims of what we had expended on federal roads, even part of it paid to the state government, it would have strengthened our hands to do more.”
According to him, “We have sunk in so much and we have not received anything at all and it runs into hundreds of billions of naira and they are verified debts.”
“I have presented this position before the Joint Committee of the National Assembly, we have gone to federal minister of works and the minister also came here with his directors, and they have verified these claims,” he said.
Source: Daily Post
